Letter to the editor: Read ‘Rules for Radicals’

I invite each of you to read, if you have not already done so, “Rules for Radicals” also known as Rules for Revolution by Saul Alinsky and “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli to understand the methods and means of the Coles and their fellow travelers.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are disciples of Saul Alinsky and I would wager they’ve studied Machiavelli as well.

In a society where individuals choose to be free it is every citizen’s responsibility to become informed and know enough to make rational decisions and judgments. After reading the above suggestions you will be better prepared to do that.

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Suzanne Downing had careers in business and journalism before serving as the Director of Faith and Community-based Initiatives for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and returning to Alaska to serve as speechwriter for Gov. Sean Parnell. Born on the Oregon coast, she moved to Alaska in 1969.

Latest comments

Morrigan/May 14, 2019

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Art Chance/May 15, 2019

Thank you for the kind words! “Red on Blue” needs a 2nd Edition to take into account some of the lessons of the Obama Regime and the “resistance” against the Trump Administration, which means I need a good dose of self-discipline.

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Morrigan/May 15, 2019

Consider it administered with supplemental doses of liquid medication authorized as required.

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Ben Colder/May 14, 2019

It has been my observation that, people who resort to name calling, insults and “employing” the “rules for radicals”, are deficient in vocabulary skills, perforce, to project a rational, civil thought/opinion. Alinsky’s “rules for radicals” demonstrate that very well. In my opinion, those “rules” are instructing the very same tactics for leftists/socialists to use, simply because the recipients of those instructions are also incapable of civil discourse. Hence, resort to name calling, insults and derogatory comments against anyone with dissenting opinions. Leftist “culture” at it’s worst. I don’t care if the leftists are college “professors” or “common folk”, the same applies. Insults and name calling are much easier to use and project, with a limited vocabulary, than rational, civil discourse. I believe in saying it like I see/think it. Rebuttal is welcome.

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Art Chance/May 15, 2019

The lefties who employ Alinskyite tactics don’t acknowledge even the humanity of their opponents and certainly don’t credit opposition opinion with any validity, so they’re not interested in a rational dialog. They shout, insult and name-call to stifle opposition speech.

I flirted with leftist politics in the late Sixties, early Seventies until I started reading books not assigned to me by “educators.” I read “Rules” with all the other cool kids shortly after it came out in the early Seventies and then relegated it to the dustbin of failed ideas. Then the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees showed up in Alaska and became the representative of the State’s largest group of unionized employees, the 8000-odd member General Government Unit in 1988.

Most of us in State labor relations had at least some background on the union side and with leftist politics from our college days. ASEA/AFSCME’s craziness had more than a whiff of familiarity. Those arbitral and legal reporters and leather-bound hornbooks in our office began gathering dust to be replaced by well-thumbed copies of “Rules.” By the mid-Nineties collective bargaining with ASEA/AFSCME was just politics by other means. They didn’t seem to care how many arbitrations or labor board hearings they lost; they just wanted the drama and upset. In Trotsky/Alinsky terms they wanted the continuous revolution. They went the last two years of the Hickel Administration without a contract because they were confident the failing and flailing Administration didn’t have the political will to challenge their majority and decertify them. They specialized in mau-mauing supervisors, singing songs and waving signs, and generally raising Hell. We stopped enforcing their compulsory dues provisions and had them down to 30% or so of the bargaining unit actually paying dues. They were fairly racked and stacked for decertification and ridding Alaska of a pestilence with a Republican victory in the ’94 election. Instead they bought themselves a made-man in Tony Knowles and the Knowles Administration immediately gave them a rollover contract and restored their compulsory dues, thus saving them.

All the senior staff of State labor relations found other places to work rather than kow-towing to ASEA on behalf of the Knowles Administration and in the power vacuum ASEA/AFSCME went on a tear of raising Hell right out of “Rules.” By the last couple of years of the Knowles Administration even they could no longer stand their union friends. They hired me back into the Executive Branch from the Legislature to try to fix the mess they’d made, my mission from the new commissioner was to “get ASEA off my back and out of my buildings.”

I did so armed with a thorough understanding of Alinskyite tactics, but not really using them; sane, intelligent people are not really susceptible to the use of Alinskyite tactics, but you do have to understand them. My primary tactic, which got me some criticism, was to let them be themselves; you had to tolerate a good bit of the Hell-raising. The point of Alinskyite tactics is to provoke otherwise sane, thoughtful people to lose their temper and do something stupid and preferably violent. If they can’t provoke you, they do ever crazier things trying to provoke you as they shed support and supporters with their craziness. Left to themselves they’ll do ever-crazier things until they finally do something truly stupid and indefensible. Then you smash them like bugs. I left a trail of fired and disciplined union activists, the union couldn’t save them, and peace broke out all over; a peace that held for over a decade. Peace has been maintained through the Palin, Parnell, and Walker Administrations but it has been bought rather than earned and the price has been very high; we’ll see how much of your Permanent Fund Dividend the unions leave for you when the Session ends.

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Linda Mae/May 14, 2019

Mr. Randolph, I could not have expressed my thoughts any better than what you have written. Kudos to you sir!